George Stinney Exoneration Highlights Jim Crow-Era Wrongful Executions

On December 17, 2014, a South Carolina judge exonerated George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old Black boy executed in 1944 for the murders of two white girls — the youngest person executed in the U.S. in the 20th century. The judge found Stinney had not received a fair trial: he had no meaningful legal representation, his 'confession' was coerced without parents present, and the all-white jury deliberated for 10 minutes. The case, revisited in the modern era, became a touchstone for discussions of wrongful convictions, juvenile justice, and racial terror masquerading as law.